Cisco, Symantec, Network Associates, and Trend Micro team up to create …

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2003 has been nothing if not a banner year for viruses and worms. Last summer, MSBlaster and SoBig made many a corporate network (and network admin) cry for their mommies. Recognizing the need for better collaboration in tightening security to stop the propagation of evil code, Cisco, Network Associates, Symantec, and Trend Micro have announced an alliance. The idea behind the initiative is having a coordinated defense based on common standards:

Cisco helped bring the competing security firms together by describing the initiative to customers and asking them to lobby Network Associates, Symantec and Trend Micro to participate, said Bob Gleichauf, Cisco's chief technology officer for security. And knowing that their competitors were interested, none of the firms wanted to be left out in the cold, he said. "Everybody realized that it was in their interests and in the customers' interests to do this," Gleichauf said in an interview.

The alliance may also be expanded to include other companies willing to license the software. Plans call for networks to monitor incoming traffic for malicious code or other security risks as well as checking devices on the LAN to ensure that they have the latest security measures in place before allowing them access. A system like this would help prevent problems such as people brining infected laptops into the office and starting a new outbreak when they are plugged in, or people returning from vacation and relaunching an outbreak when they log back into the network.

Obviously, virus outbreaks could be limited if people took basic steps such as keeping their virus definitions updated, but the truth is that some users can't be bothered to take basic security precautions. Initiatives like this Cisco-led one are attempting to take security out of the user's hands altogether, and many insitutions (i.e., ISPs who could conceivably keep unsecured computers offline) will be keenly interested in the results of this alliance.